US1096787A - Buckle. - Google Patents

Description

E. J. KRAB'I'ZER.

BUCKLE. APPLIOATIO IY FILED JAN.18, 1906.

Patehted May 12, 1914.

Fi JIIL COLUMBIA PLANOURAPH C0.. WASHINGTON, B. C

Y ED STATES PATENT OFFTQE.

EDWIN J. KBAETZER, F SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF THREE-SIX- TEENTHS TO FREEBORN F. RAYMOND, 2D, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS; SAMUEL CARR EXECUTOR OF SAID RAYMOND, DECEASED.

BUCKLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 12, 1914:.

Application filed January 18, 1906. Serial No. 286,621.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWIN J. KaAn'rznn, 0t Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Buckles, of which the :t'ollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in explaining its nature.

My invention relates to that type of hue-- kle consisting of separable members which may be retained in interlocking engagement with one another or be separated as occa- SlOn may I'eqllll'c.

The essential object of my invention is to provide a buckle in which the interlocking tongue or portion of the one member will engage with the other member from the upper side thereof as distinguished from that type of buckle in which the interlocking engagement of the tongue is made by drawing the tongue upwardly through the other member; and my invention further essentially consists in so constructing the buckle that not only will the tongue carried by one member engage with the other member as aforesaid, but when in engagement will be held or maintained positively in place, or, in other words, so that it cannot become disengaged without a positive action of disengagement.

It is a further and even more essential ob ject of my invention to provide a buckle having a smooth top, or one so constructed that it will not injure those portions of garments brought into contact with it. This latter consideration is made especially with reference to the buckle when used on overshocs for which use my improved type of buckle is especially adapted. It is one objectionable feature of the common overshoe buckle now worn, especially when worn by women, that it frays or wears the skirt by catching onto the same.

Accordingly, it my further object, as above explained, to so construct the improved buckle that it will not have this fault.

My invention can best be seen and understood by rcference to the drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows in plan the two members of the buckle, the tongue carrying member shown in a disengaging position and separated from the other member. Fig. 2 shows a plan of the buckle in which the two members thereof are in engagement with one another. Fig. 3 shows a cross section on the line 33 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4: shows a like cross section excepting that the interlocking tongue portion of the buckle is drawn out of engaging position. Fig. 5 shows in plan a blank from which is formed a portion of one member of the buckle. Fig. 6 shows a blank from which is formed the remaining portion of said member. Fig. 7 shows in cross section a modified form of buckle to which special reference will hereinafter be made. Fig. 8 shows in plan a blank from which a portion of the buckle shown in Fig. 7 is formed. Fig. 9 shows a blank for forming a slight further modification there of. Fig. 10 shows a cross section of the same struck up.

In the drawings:A represents the active or interlocking tongue bearing member of the buckle. B represents the passive member of the buckle, or ladder with which the active member of the buckle makes an interlocking engagement. The members A and B are fastened, respectively, to the parts to be retained, connection preferably being made by means of the respective straps a. and b, although any other means for retaining the members may be employed. It might also be explained at this point that the ladder member B is preferably substantially of the form heretofore employed in which there are a series of slots?) and adjacent bars b into any one of which slots the tongue Off the interlocking member of the buckle is adapted to extend and engage with the bar adjacent to it.

Referring now in detail to the construc tion of the active member A of the buckle, attention is first called to its body (L This portion comprises a flattened plate having therein a slot at through which passes the strap a. From this portion of the buckle there projects an extension a from which depends a tongue (6 adapted to interlock with the passive member B when the members of the buckle are brought into conjunction with one another, as will now be explained.

()n the under side of the member A of the of disengagement.

buckle and connecting with the body thereof is what may be termed a rest a. This rest is so arranged that the member B of the buckle may be inserted between the rest and the body a of the member A to be held by the rest preparatory to locking the two parts of the buckle together. In other words, the member B or passive member of the buckle is held by the rest in place to receive the interlocking tongue a The rest a is carried by a part or plate a which connects with the body a to extend along beneath the body and project forward therefrom, the

rest being formed by this forward-extending part which has slot or opening a in it just adjacent the rest into which opening the member B of the buckle is adapted to be inserted to bear against the rest when the members of the buckle are brought into conjunction with one another. I prefer to make the part a of the member A integral with the body port-ion (4 thereof, a slot a being formed in said part a complementary to the strap-receiving slot (4 in the body a the strap a, passing through both slots and around the interposed or integrally connecting part or portion a between the slots. This portion a of the buckle forms, in other words, the strap bar with which the strap a connects. Besides its adaptability as a strap bar the portion a may act as a spring, acting in other words .to yieldingly retain the body a of the member by which it or rather the tongue a carried by it, may be lifted out of operative position or engagement with the passive member B. The normal position of the tongue (1. is one of engagement, or such that when the two members of the buckle are in conjunction with one another as above described, the tongue a will extend down into one of the slots 6 formed in the member l3 and lock against the bar 6 adjacent to such slot, locking the two members of the buckle together. The yielding retention of the tongue a may be afforded in part by the strap bar a or the body a alone may be made yielding, or even the body extensionwhereby the tongue a may be released from,

or raised out of such engaging position.

Reference "ill now be made to the means by which the interlocking tongue a may be released, or lifted out of an engaging position into a position of disengagement from the passive member B, as shown in Fig. i where the two membersz of the buckle are shown in conjunction with one another, but the interlocking tongue (i is in a position The means consists of the thumb piece a which acts as a lever for operator.

controlling the tongue. This thumbpiece is preferably made in the form shown and of about the same width as the body a of the member A of the buckle and of which member it forms a part. In it is formed a slot or opening a adjacent to which is a bar a. This slot and adjacent bar are so arranged or adapted that when the thumb piece is combined with the body a? of the member A of the buckle the tongue a will extend down through the slot or opening a in the thumb piece to make its interlocking engagement with the passive member B of the buckle as before descrlbed, while the bar a one another so that the entire surface of the member A of the buckle will have a smooth and attractive appearance and with no corners or sharp edges upon which the garment of the wearer may catch. The tongue a and thumb piece thus conjoining, the thumb piece when turned down allows the tongue to assume its normal position of engagement as before described. Besides, the body extension (6 itself yielding, or being yieldingly retained as it is, acts as a spring to positively hold down the thumb piece in a position substantially as shown in Fig. 3

where the members are shown in conjunction, the tongue making its interlocking engagement and the thumbpiece held in its downturned position so that no possible release of the tongue can be had unless it is released by some positive action of the Such positive action consists in turning up the'thumb piece. When the thumb pieceis turned up from a position like that shown in Fig. 3 to a position like that shown in Fig. 4, the thumb piece will turn upon the portion a acting as a fulcrum or bearing and the bar a of the thumb piece will bear against the extension or tongue-carrying portion e which enters the slot or opening in the thumb piece. Thereupon the tongue willbe lifted by the bar a of the thumb piece into'a position of disengagement and the members A and B of the buckle loosed from one another whereupon they may be separated. r

When the thumb piece has been turned up sufliciently to entirely disengage the tongue a as aforesaid, then the bar a thereof will have been turned to assume a position wedged or held fixedly between the extension a and the portion a of the member A on which account the thumb piece will re main in a turned up position of disengagement which continues until the tongue is released upon turning down the thumb piece by a positive action of the operator. It is also to be noted that if the thumb piece is turned up and back it cannot be turned back so far that said thumb-piece will become disengaged from the extension a from which the locking tongue a depends, owing to the fact that the rear edge of the bar a of the thumb-piece will come in contact with the depending tongue a, and the top side portions of the said thumb-piece, outside of the slot a will come in contact with the forward edges of the side portions of the body a outside of the extension a these parts serving as stops to limit the backward movement of the thumb-piece, and thus prevent the disengagement thereof from the said body a. It is hardly neces sary to add that the tongue a after it has once been raised into a disengaging position with respect to the passive member 13 can again be released to engage therewith simply by turning down the thumb piece.

The buckle besides its efficiency in accomplishing the objects of my invention as above pointed out, has also additional merit in the fact that its members can be very easily struck up from blanks stamped from metal plate out of which I prefer to make them.

The member B comprising the passive member of the buckle or ladder is of the ordinary construction struck up from a single blank, and needs no further description being so well known in the art. Reference accordingly will onlyv be made to the active member A. The blanks from which this member is formed are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Referring first to Fig. 5, there is shown a blank consisting of a series of parts to which I will refer in turn by describing the same in connection with such part of the member A as they are destined to form after the blank is struck up. The portion 1 forms the body a of said member. The slot 2 therein forms the slot a through which the strap a, to which the member is secured, is adapted to pass. The projecting portion 3 forms the body extension (4 and tongue a which is formed by simply bending over said projecting portion 3. From part 4 is formed the rest a, the part simply being struck down. The part 5 forms the part a. The slot 6 forms the opening a through which the passive member 13 is adapted to pass to be held by the rest a when the two members of the buckle are brought together. The slot 7 is the slot (4 in the member struck up, supplementary to the slot a through which the strap a is adapted to pass, the part 8 interposed between these slots forming the strap bar a and at which point the blank is bent.

In Fig. 6 there is represented the blank from which the thumb piece is made. The blank comprises the parts 9, 10, and 11, which are substantially the same as the parts a, a and a of the thumb piece. The thumb piece in fact requires no further manipulation than rounding it into an att active form and so that it will not catch onto a garment.

In Fig. 7 I have shown a slight modification of the invention in that the interlocking tongue is formed upon the thumb piece instead of depending from the extension (L33 to the body a of the active member. In other words, the thumb piece of the member is the tongue bearing-portion thereof, while the yielding portion a on which was formed or from which depended the interlocking tongue becomes the part designated a by which the tongue-bearing thumb piece may be held positively in place when in an engaging position. In fact, the tongue-bearing thumb piece becomes practically the acti ve member of a buckle, there being afforded in the present instance additional means by which the thumb piece when in operative position, or in engagement with the passive member of the buckle, is held positively in such position of engagement without any possibility of its becoming disengaged until released by the operator. In describing this modified construction attention need only be further directed to the tongue-bearing thumb piece, the thumb piece as such being retained and operating substantially in the same manner as before described. As will be noted the thumb piece designated a has in it a slot and adjacent thereto a bar 0 along the edge thereof. This bar is adapted to be inserted between the body extension or clip 0 to rest upon the part a forming a bearing in substantially the same way as was the bar a of the thumb piece inserted beneath the extension a and between it and the bearing presented by the part a in the first mentioned type of buckle. Ilxtending from the thumb piece so as to make interlocking connection with the passive member of the buckle is a tongue o Of course the thumb piece being thus retained. by the spring and connecting indirectly as described with the part to be joined, may be turned up or down from an engaging to a disengaging position or vice versa. Moreover by the bearing of the extension or clip 0 against the bar of the thumb piece it is held by pressure positively in place when in engaging position.

When the interlocking tongue is on the thumb piece as just described it may easily be struck from a blank. This form of blank I have shown in Fig. 8 in which the portion 12 forms the main part a of the thumb piece, 13 the slot 0 therein, l l the bar 0 adjacent to the slot and the cut portion 15 forms the tongue 0" when the blank is struck up. Of course the tongue might be formed upon the end of the thumb piece. Such con struction I have shown in Fig. 9 in which the blank is provided with a projection 16, which when the blank is struck up forms the tongue 0 on the end of the thumb piece.

It will be observed that in the preferred form of the invention, shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and also in the slightly modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 7, the active member of the buckle consists of pieces of spring sheet metal folded on itself to form the body a and the underlying part a which extends forward of the end of the said body a and which carries the depressed rest a for the passive buckle member B, combined with athumb-piece which has a hinged or pivoted connection with the said body a by virtue of a narrow extension on the said body entering a slot in said thumb piece, the latter, when lifted to disengage the locking tongue from the passive member of the buckle, bearing on the sides of the forward extension of the said part a so that said thumb-piece may be held in. or out of locking position by the spring action of the two folded parts of the said active member. Also in the modified form of the invention shown in Figs. 11 and 12 the spring action of the plate (P, with its forward extension, on the tongue (Z is similar to the spring action just above described. It will also be observed that the rest a which supports the passive member B is depressed below the bottom of the part a underlying the body 0, so that the said passive member may be disposed beneath the active member of the buckle, as shown in the drawings.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States: i

1. A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, said passive member being slotted and said active member having a body, an interlocking tongue, connected with said body, for engaging said slotted passive member, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue, said thumb piece having an opening in it and a bar adjacent said opening to be engaged by said tongue, said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge and being also provided with a member connected therewith to extend beneath said body and beyond the forward edge thereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece and on which said thumb piece may rest and turn and occupy a position substantially flush with said. body of the buckle with the rear edge of said. thumb piece adjacent the forward edgeof said body when said thumb piece is in a downturned position, said forwardly projecting member having also a slot therein and a depressed bar adjacent 'thereto forming a rest for said passive memher.

2. In a buckle, an active member having a body, an interlocking tongue connected with said body, a thumb piece for controlling said tongne, said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge and being provided also with a member integrally connected therewith at the rear edge thereof to extend forward beneath said body and beyond the forward edge thereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece on which said thumb piece i adapted to rest and turn and occupy a position substantially flush with said body of the buckle with the rear edge of said thumb piece adjacent the forward edge of said body when said thumb piece is in a downturned position, said thumb piece having an opening in it 'entered by said tongue and a bar adjacent said opening, said body of the buckle being provided also with an extension therefrom projecting beyond the forward edge thereof and extending over the bar of said thumb piece to enter the opening therein.

3. In a buckle, an active member having a body, an interlocking tongue connected with said body, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue, said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge-and being pro-. vided also with a member integrally connected therewith at the rear edge thereof to extend forward beneath said body and beyond the forward edge thereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece on which said thumb piece is adapted. to rest and turn and occupy a position substantially flush with said body of the buckle with the rear edge of said thumb pieceadjacent the forward edge of said body when said;

thumb piece is in a downturned position, said thumb piece having an opening 1n 1t entered by said tongue and a bar adjacent said opening.

4, A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, said passive member being slotted and said active member having a body, an interlocking tongue for engaging said slotted passive member, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue, said thumb piece having an opening init and a bar adjacent said opening to be engaged bysaidtongue, said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge and be-- mg also provided with a member connect-V -lt'orwardly projecting member having a depressed bar forming a rest for said passive member.

5. A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, said passive member being slotted and said active member hav ing a body, an interlocking tongue for engaging said slotted passive member, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue, said. thumb piece having an opening in it and a bar adjacent said opening to be engaged by said tongue, said body presenting a forward edge and being also provided with a member connected therewith to extend beneath said body and beyond the forward edge thereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece and on which said thumb piece may rest and turn and occupy a position substantially flush with said body with the rear edge of said thumb piece adjacent the forward edge of said body when said thumb piece is in a downturned position, said forwardly projecting member having also a slot therein and a depressed bar adjacent to said slot and forming a rest for said passive member.

6. A buckle con'lprising a slotted passive member and an active member, the latter consisting of a piece of spring sheet metal folded on itself to form a body and an underlying part which extends beyond said body and is provided with a rest or support for said passive member and which rest or support is depressed below said underlying part, said body having a narrow forward extension provided at its end with a down-turned tongue, combined with a hinged thnmb-piece having a slot entered by said tongue, the said thumb-piece resting at its sides on the sides of the forward extension of said underlying part.

EDWIN J. KRAETZER.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN E. R. I'IAYES, M, E. FLAIIERTY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C.

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